Correction to the main document, EA stirs up interest with a pointless question when they have already decided that their going to produce a game and it's probably a prequel otherwise they will have to say one of the endings from 3 was the 'cannon' ending.

Really are people still interested in this after EA Bioware has made it clear their only interested in milking the last bits of creditability they have before going the way of all EA groups and being dissolved.

Where's the 'Rehire Chris E'toile and Drew Karpyshyn and let them remake Mass Effect 2 and 3 without Casey Hudson as project director' option? Cause the flow of the series was pretty poor. Maybe remake Mass Effect 2 and make it more relevant to the actual series plot, cut out the Space Jesus crap, Cerberus (or at least stop writing them as fan fictiony badasses), maybe have the second game be about tracking down the plans for the Crucible so it doesn't seem like a total ass-pull in ME3, etc. The overarching series plot REALLY needed more planning then what they did, so maybe hiring the two major writers of the first game would produce a more...stable narrative?

I just can't get excited about either one. Then entire galactic community was nearly wiped out in the Mass Effect trilogy. After that, everything else will just feel too small for me. If I had to pick one, I'd say a sequel. Problem is, they would have to decide which ending is the official one. One ending even has Shepard surviving, not to mention the other huge differences between them. So I just don't know. If Mass Effect 3 hadn't ended so poorly, maybe I could get more excited, but I just can't now.

"No" to what? If you're saying No to another game in the series, then please go hide in a hole and stop bothering us. If not- then clarify.

Thank you for so kindly accepting my opinion./angry sarcasm>:(

Sorry- i've just had it with haters. Your oppinion on the subject is valid, if you still have vested interest in the franchise, otherwise it would be just trolling. No to the idea of a prequel is actually my thought as well.

Thing is I'm not a hater. I don't hate the series. I'm just not interested in it anymore and I don't think an additional game would add anything beneficial to it. But then again, it's gotten to the point now where I actually fear any additions to franchises that I currently enjoy or have enjoyed in the past. ...esp. prequels or interquels (what I call entries that are inserted into the middle of established canon) because they tend to really fuck up established canon. Eg. Star Trek: Enterprise with that whole temporal cold war thing.

RhombusHatesYou:Definitely after... mostly because I'm a sadistic prick who wants to see them try and write their way out of how they finished the trilogy.

This.

I will admit, I am playing through the games again. Doing a Paragon run through on an Adept. Vanguard was a hell of a lot more fun to play, but I'll tough it out. Just starting Mass Effect 3, couldn't even touch it until now after my Renegade run through.. those endings..

I think it would be hilarious to see how Bioware could actually explain the endings, any one of them. As mentioned before, either:

Prequel. You can't really follow the immense ending of ME3 and they'd have to pick what officially happened.Doing a prequel allows to delve deeper into the humans' introduction to the rest of the galaxy. I think it'd make for a grittier, better and more personal story. As long as the prequel features none of the characters of the trilogy. Would have to be completely separate.

Why Pre- or Sequel and not an Interquel? There is a 2-year-gap between ME1 and ME2. There are TONS of things that could be told there. Could cover characters we already know or new ones. It could lets us get background details on events from the series that already have happened or will happen (or both), maybe allow us to experience events just mentioned in ME2...

And one thing I am personally interested: How did the change from in-build-heatclips to loose ones affect conflicts? In ME2, out of the sudden, loose Heat clips exists. All fine from a gameplay point and it makes sense that people were looking for something better than the existing system, which turned fights basically into stalemates. New system solved that BUT... that change didn't happen over night, either.

If, however, they do a prequel it should essentially be one in name only. The worst part about prequels is how you already know how they're going to end, but if they set the ME prequel so far removed from the ME trilogy in time/space that it has nothing to do with anything we've seen already it could work. The mythos they've created is certainly deep and wide enough to do that successfully.. but I'd still choose after.

well they did establish that there were uncounted cycles before humanity, so they can go nuts establishing whatever they want, since none of those cycles aside from the Prothean one were expandedif they go for a setting after the trilogy, they would have to add a save import to decide what happenedalthough it'd basically mean they'd have to make 3 games out of it =P

Sorry- i've just had it with haters. Your oppinion on the subject is valid, if you still have vested interest in the franchise, otherwise it would be just trolling. No to the idea of a prequel is actually my thought as well.

Thing is I'm not a hater. I don't hate the series. I'm just not interested in it anymore and I don't think an additional game would add anything beneficial to it. But then again, it's gotten to the point now where I actually fear any additions to franchises that I currently enjoy or have enjoyed in the past. ...esp. prequels or interquels (what I call entries that are inserted into the middle of established canon) because they tend to really fuck up established canon. Eg. Star Trek: Enterprise with that whole temporal cold war thing.

Well that's the problem right there- you lost interest, so what does it matter to you what happens. Me and a lot of others want more and this is a dsicussion on what is it that we want more of. Noone is going to make you play anything new that comes out, so why deny us the pleasure?

fozzy360:Ideally, they could move on with a brand new franchise to murder. Even more ideally, they could reboot ME3 and give us a proper conclusion.

That said, I don't have a vested interest in the series anymore. I'm done.

Same to you- why are you here? Why are you commenting on something that you don't care for? Are you in such a bad need of attention?

Screw prequels. I already have know what happened in the past, and if something happened that I don't know about, it clearly wasn't all that important anyway. I want to know what happens NEXT. A good sequel set in the aftermath of ME3 could lend legitimacy to ME3's ending and even retroactively excuse them - after all, ME3's ending was balls, but if it leads to a unique and exciting sequel, I'm sure even the most ardent detractors will forgive it, if not accept it.

Sorry- i've just had it with haters. Your oppinion on the subject is valid, if you still have vested interest in the franchise, otherwise it would be just trolling. No to the idea of a prequel is actually my thought as well.

Thing is I'm not a hater. I don't hate the series. I'm just not interested in it anymore and I don't think an additional game would add anything beneficial to it. But then again, it's gotten to the point now where I actually fear any additions to franchises that I currently enjoy or have enjoyed in the past. ...esp. prequels or interquels (what I call entries that are inserted into the middle of established canon) because they tend to really fuck up established canon. Eg. Star Trek: Enterprise with that whole temporal cold war thing.

Well that's the problem right there- you lost interest, so what does it matter to you what happens. Me and a lot of others want more and this is a dsicussion on what is it that we want more of. Noone is going to make you play anything new that comes out, so why deny us the pleasure?

Did you not read the part where I said that I don't think the series could benefit from any additional entries? Or the part where I said I actually fear any new entries to franchises I enjoy or used to enjoy? Because if you did then you'd understand why it matters to me. Besides it's not as though Bioware is going to base it's decision on my opinion.

Prequel would be far better than a sequel also more believable becuse what are you going to do after those ME3 endings, like really, only ending that had any legs was the later added do nothing ending and even that one can eventually result only one outcome unless they pull another starchild out of somewhere. Prequel could possibly be really good like the first contact wars era or something but even if they pull it of perfectly there will still be two things shadowing the prequel(s) everybody will konow how it will end and you can not possibly make a game with higher stakes than ME3.

I mean the Reapers are pretty much done, I don't see how they could make an interesting game featuring them. At least not as interesting as a completely new storyline.

Before we have the First Contact War, they could do a pretty interesting story there. Set on Shanxi and featuring general Williams in some way (hopefully not the protagonist though) it could make a pretty great prequel. But it'd be forcefully restricted to be more of a tie-in standalone game. Don't think there's enough happening there to make a full prequel trilogy.

Afterwards you could do another big trilogy. Especially if you make a few decades in time pass. Only problem is dealing with the three different endings as it makes a rather big difference whether or not the Reapers still exist and whether or not the entire universe is made up of synthetic-organic hybrids.

If, however, they do a prequel it should essentially be one in name only. The worst part about prequels is how you already know how they're going to end, but if they set the ME prequel so far removed from the ME trilogy in time/space that it has nothing to do with anything we've seen already it could work. The mythos they've created is certainly deep and wide enough to do that successfully.. but I'd still choose after.

well they did establish that there were uncounted cycles before humanity, so they can go nuts establishing whatever they want, since none of those cycles aside from the Prothean one were expandedif they go for a setting after the trilogy, they would have to add a save import to decide what happenedalthough it'd basically mean they'd have to make 3 games out of it =P

I would actually say the far more likely approach if they did an after game would be to just choose one of the outcomes as the canon outcome and roll with that. Sure it would tick a lot of pepole off, but it would make it far easier then, as you correctly say, making essentially 3+ games instead of one. Of course, they could also set an after game far enough into the future that anything that happened in the original series is ancient history and doesn't impact much at all on the current universe.

Sorry- i've just had it with haters. Your oppinion on the subject is valid, if you still have vested interest in the franchise, otherwise it would be just trolling. No to the idea of a prequel is actually my thought as well.

Thing is I'm not a hater. I don't hate the series. I'm just not interested in it anymore and I don't think an additional game would add anything beneficial to it. But then again, it's gotten to the point now where I actually fear any additions to franchises that I currently enjoy or have enjoyed in the past. ...esp. prequels or interquels (what I call entries that are inserted into the middle of established canon) because they tend to really fuck up established canon. Eg. Star Trek: Enterprise with that whole temporal cold war thing.

Well that's the problem right there- you lost interest, so what does it matter to you what happens. Me and a lot of others want more and this is a dsicussion on what is it that we want more of. Noone is going to make you play anything new that comes out, so why deny us the pleasure?

fozzy360:Ideally, they could move on with a brand new franchise to murder. Even more ideally, they could reboot ME3 and give us a proper conclusion.

That said, I don't have a vested interest in the series anymore. I'm done.

Same to you- why are you here? Why are you commenting on something that you don't care for? Are you in such a bad need of attention?

Possibly because they're still bitter about how a franchise with such promise ended on such a backwards nonsensical note. Just because you claim to lose intrest in a franchise doesn't mean you won't keep an eye on it, whether it's to see if it'll redeem itself or how much further down the shitter it'll go before you're offended enough to turn away.

OP: I'm another for neither, though less because I don't want to see another one. I'd like to see an alternate universe entry where Shepard doesn't even exist, but the lore remains intact. Maybe then we'll get an ending that makes sense, to.

Josh12345:No prequel, primarily because Bioware HAS to have humans in there somewhere and there's a really small window between First Contact and ME1, meaning there's very few interesting things to play with without either already knowing about how it started and ended (First Contact war, Batarian issue) or them completely retconning a war in (I can imagine them pulling some old 'Oh yeah and the Quarians tried fighting the Geth 5 years ago, and humans were involved, and there were new guns to play around with that were conveniently missing from the future games'*glares at Halo Reach*)

to be fair, in reach, the planet itself was the center of their military, as well as a BIG research and development place, so the new toys just never got distributed, because Halo FTL is slow, and there are many administrative and logistical problems to work out, not unlike that of the Imperium of Man tying to.... well do ANYTHING

honestly, its sad how completely reasonable, and likely true, the idea that you NEED humans in these games to have them sell.

i would LOVE to play in the rachni wars as a member of an asari commando unit, or turian soldiers, or salarian spec-ops. i would LOVE to play in the morning war, as either a geth platform not unlike legion (or even as legion himself) going through the path to sentience, or to see the perspective of the quarians, who are likely horrifically divided on this issue, and their reactions as they slowly realize their mistakes, but never understanding how badly they fucked up everything until they had to retreat from their home system.

those games could be FANTASTIC, buuuuut there are no humans involved, since for the former event, the dark ages were still in full swing, and for the latter of the 2, america was just turning into a thing.

though, if/since either of those 2 aren't options, i would really rather see a sequel, so long as they make it so that you either went control or destroy, and the AI was lying, so the geth didn't get wiped out, or at least not the ones way back on rannoch. It would be interesting to see how the galaxy looks after such a hugely devastating conflict. I can imagine it would be a bit like post world war 2. People going back to their homes to find some lingering old problems, like racism, and also EVERYTHING IS BROKEN.

and also, if the genophage is cured, that could be very VERY interesting and/or problematic how the world is reacting to that. i can only hope to god wrex is keeping them in check, but he is probably going to need some help.

Only problem I have with a Mass Effect sequel; How the hell do you top the Reapers?

Just get this for a second, in ME1, when you flew around in the Normandy, nothing ever happened to you. It was a safe haven. In ME2, the first thing that happens is you get blown to pieces and get spaced by the Collectors. That works out great because not only do you die, your safe haven was destroyed, it showed how much stronger the Collectors are than the Geth from ME1. In ME3, the Reapers are the end all. Not only do you see them take over Earth, you already know what and who they are. Their strength is already apparent.

The point is, how do you top the end all? How do you top endless armies that were going to destroy the whole galaxy? Once beaten, how is anything else a threat? Ignoring the endings, I just don't see how there can be anything threatening anymore.

But that's just me on a story standpoint and apologies is mentioned before.

Just because you claim to lose intrest in a franchise doesn't mean you won't keep an eye on it

That is exactly what it means, otherwise you still show intrest by reading such news. One either backs out and doesn't bother anymore or he does and he keeps commenting in the hope that his oppinion matters to someone. Simple as that, if you don't care- you don't get to have an oppinion, and as soon as the "I'm through with this franchise" idiots get it, the better.

I would like it to be a sequel perhaps set a decade or two after the end of Mass Effect 3 but if it is a prequel I would like to see it not have anything do with the Reaper war. Have it be set somewhere else.